10 Quick Ones with TOMMY GEHRINER of MONUMENT OF A MEMORY – May 2018

According to a recent press release: “New Jersey metal band Monument Of A Memory premieres the music video for “Cold Eyes” with Loudwire. The song is the lead track off of the band’s most recent EP Ex-Mortis, which came out this past January. “This song discusses the harsh reality of life and death,” states Monument Of A Memory’s singer Tommy Gehringer. “It was inspired by a man who I saw go into cardiac arrest and then proceeded to give the man CPR till medics arrived.”” We get guitarist singer Tommy to discuss new music, influences, and more in our 10 Quick Ones…

1. Tell us a little about your latest release.  What might a fan or listener not grab the first or second time they listen through?  Are there any hidden nuggets the band put in the material or that only diehard fans might find?

Something that the fans might not notice about the EP is that we put a ton of effort into the cinematics of each song. You can hear different impacts, synths, violins, piano, pads and a bunch of fantastic ambient sounds that we’ve added to our music to give ourselves as best of an EP as we possibly can.

2. What got you into music, and can you tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a musician?

My father has worked as a mastering engineer his whole life, so I was always around instruments and different styles of music from the get go. I realized after watching hours of videos online of my favorite artists playing live, that I wanted nothing more than to be able to play to thousands of people and be able to feed off the energy that’s built between the artist and the audience. Playing on stage gives you an incredible high, and nothing else can compete with the feeling.

3. Who would be your main five musical influences?

I think out of all the bands we love, we’re definitely influenced by As I Lay Dying, Parkway Drive, Lamb Of God, Trivium, and early All That Remains.

4. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be?

If we could call in anyone our first choice would be to feature Winston from Parkway Drive on a guest spot. His vocal style would blend perfectly with our songwriting and we’d kill to have him on a track one day.

5. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before?

I think the most definable characteristics of our music is that we’re fast, heavy and pissed off, but we know how to show our softer side and bring some big melodic choruses to the table. We’re a very happy medium for our style of metal. We bring crushing breakdowns and face melting riffs, but can sing you to sleep the next moment.

6. What’s the best thing about being a musician?

The best thing about being a musician is being able to freely express your feelings, stories and opinions to an audience of people who actually listen to what you write about and can find some joy in it. It’s so humbling to get messages about how our music has helped someone through a bad time or how our music has helped shape their life in one way or another. It drives you to write more and really pushes us to be the best we can be.

7. When the band are all hanging out together, who cooks; who gets the drinks in; and who is first to crack out the acoustic guitars for a singalong?

Eren (Guitar) and Josh (Bass) would be the first to fire up the grill for sure. Me and Dylan (Drums) would definitely be bringing out the guitars to jam. We’d all be gettin drinks in as well and probably be playing cards against humanity for the whole night.

8. If you weren’t a musician, what would be your dream job?

If I wasn’t a musician I think I’d be playing lacrosse in college, or going to school for chiropractic since I found it interesting as a kid. I fell in love with music at an early age so it’s hard to see myself doing anything not related to music or audio.

9. Looking back over your career, is there a single moment or situation you feel was a misstep or you would like to have a “do over”?

Honestly, it’s hard to pinpoint a specific moment that you wish you could change. There’s always missteps throughout the course of everyone’s career, and it’s inevitable to look back and think how you could have done things differently. A lot of the times you can’t really bring light to it because it’s usually behind the scenes stuff, but everyone has their regrets and wishes to go back and change the outcome of situations.

10. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose – and what does that record mean to you?

If I could go back in time, I’d easily want to be a part of the recording sessions for As I Lay Dying’s The Powerless Rise. That record has so much attitude to it and such fantastic songwriting. The guitars are fast and technical and the drums are these massive sounding cannons that don’t stop firing throughout the whole album. Tim Lambesis’ vocals on this are just phenomenal as well, they’re so raw and pained and it shows through his songwriting and tonality.

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Category: Interviews